We have a new ‘two-faced’ chimera cat on the internet and she is stunning. The eyes are amazing.
Columbia University Professor of Genetics and Development Virginia Papaioannou explains:
“A chimera…is a composite individual that was made up of cells from at least two different original embryos. If they fuse together early enough, they will become a single organism whose genetic input is from two completely different individuals. In a mosaic, there’s only one individual and it just happens to have different genetic components active in its cells. A chimera would be a much more unusual and unlikely event.”
I tried to explain it my way with a former well-known chimera cat, Venus, on this page:
Here are two more pictures from Instagram:
Source of images: Instagram
The half-and-half pattern on the face is not in itself indicative of a chimera, because the tortie pattern can manifest in that way quite normally. Venus was quite likely a normal tortie with an interesting pattern. Only a tissue sample (e.g. from hairs pulled from different body areas) can determine if she is a chimera.
Quimera is a little more persuasive of the chimera hypothesis because of the mix of solid patches and tabby patches.
Chimerism is fascinating. Venus and Quimera are stunning cats. I wonder how many chimera cats there are in the world?